^**w. 


A  Scroll  of  the  Law  Supposed 
to  have  been  Written  by 
j^airv>o>^^ies 


--«>—■ --^A,'  ■.■■^: 


By 

S.  Roubin 


niin  -)SD 


yn  mns 


niDDn  pD''D  p  n^D  '3-i 


A  SCROLL  OF  THE  LAW 


SUPPOSED  TO  HAVE  BEEN  WEITTEN  BY 


MAIMONIDES. 


EXPLANATIONS  BY 


DR.    S.    ROUBIN 


SAN  FBANCISCO,  CAL. 

U.  S.  or  AMERICA. 


EX    LIBRIS 


SAJJ  CARLOS     1/69 


ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


i 
* 


nnin   isd 


yi  3inD 


nisDn  ]))2'')2  p  nt:;D  'dh 


A  SCROLL  OF  THE  LAW 


SUPPOSED   TO   HAVE   BEEN    WmTTEN   BY 


MAIMONIDES. 


EXPLANATIONS   BY 


DR.    S.    ROUBIN 


SUTK.O     LIBK.jPLP2.lir 
SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL. 


U.  S.  OF  AMERICA. 


M.  WEISS, 

BOOK  AND  JOB  PRINTK.R, 

San  Francisco,  Cai,. 


»     •  • 

•  •  •; 

•  •  • 


■•  •  • . 


•■  •  •  ft  •  •  I 


'  •  • 


<c^Y^^^^M   /<-^/y^ 


c 


1)0 


CI 


3^ 


PREFATORY. 


IT  may  not  be  amiss  to  call  the  attention  of  all,  to  whom 
-^this  pamphlet  is  sent,  to  the  foundation  of  the  great 
Sutro  Library. 

It  is  one  of  the  largest  collections  of  scientific  and  tech- 
nical works,  a  veritable  monument,  in  which  all  the  labor 
of  the  human   mind  since  the  earliest  centuries  up  to  this 
date,  is  centered.     The  owner,  Adolph  Sutro,  Esq.  intends 
to  place  this  collection  into  a  fire-proof  building  on  one  of 
TO      the   most  beautiful  and  attractive  sites   of    the   city,   near 
'-      Golden  Gate  Park,  and   bequeath   it   with   his   blessing  to 
^      posterit}'. 

Q=  In  1881,  after  many  years  of  arduous  labor  on  the  Com- 

^  stock  lode,  Nevada,  Mr.  Sutro  felt  at  liberty  to  gratify  his 
5  long  projected  plan  of  visiting  the  Orient.  He  made  a 
o  very  extended  tour  around  the  world,  visiting  China,  Japan, 
India,  Palestine  and  Europe.  To  gratify  another  projected 
scheme,  that  of  establishing  in  San  Francisco  a  free  reference 
library  of  scientific  and  technical  literature,  he  collected 
while  travelling,  all  books,  documents  and  curiosities  worthy 
of  consideration,  and  being  himself  a  man  of  high  educa- 
tion and  of  taste,  his  selections  were  intelligently  made. 

In  December  1881,  at  various  auction  sales,  amongst 
them  that  of  the  great  Sunderland  library  owned  by  the  late 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  Mr.  Sutro  bought  several  thousand 
volumes,  and  about  '25  000  pamphlets  and  broadsides  relat- 
ing to  the  Avar  between  Charles  I  and  the  Parliament.  This 
collection,  extending  through  the  Cromwelian  period  to  the 
landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  may  be  considered  unique 
in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Sutro  also  bought  largely  at  the 
sale  of  the  librarv  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton. 


262806 


IV. 


In  Germany  he  made  several  large  and  important  pur- 
chases ;  about  13,000  volumes  from  the  Koyal  Bavarian 
library  in  Munich  ;  9,000  volumes  from  the  Carthusian  Mon- 
astery in  Buxheim,  and  6,000  volumes  from  the  library  of 
the  Duke  of  Dahlberg,  Augsburg.  During  his  stay  in  Europe 
on  this  occasion,  about  100,000  volumes  were  secured.  Be- 
tween this  and  his  next  visit  to  Europe  in  1889,  over  75,000 
volumes  were  purchased  through  an  agent  in  London. 

In  March,  1889,  Mr.  Sutro  again  started  for  Europe,  via 
Mexico,  and  in  the  City  of  Mexico  made  a  purchase  of  about 
13,000  volumes.  On  the  day  after  his  arrival  in  London,  on 
this  occasion,  he  attended  a  sale  of  books  and  bought  several 
thousand  volumes  from  the  library  of  the  late  Frederick 
Perkins  of  Chipstead  place,  Kent.  This  purchase  was 
largely  drama  and  the  fine  arts.  Since  his  return  from  this 
second  trip,  several  purchases  of  whole  catalogues  have  been 
made,  among  the  latter  the  library  of  the  late  Kev.  S.  M. 
Schiller  Szinessy,  Eeader  of  Talmudic  literature  in  the 
university  of  Cambridge,  England,  and  also  of  the  library 
of  the  late  Eev.  G.  Wells,  Secretary  of  the  Society  of  In- 
dustrial Chemistry  of  England.  The  military  library  of  San 
Francisco  has  also  been  purchased. 

The  Sutro  Library  has  now  about  200,000  volumes, 
amongst  them  books  of  the  earliest  editions,  old  MSS.  in 
many  languages  some  illuminated,  besides  a  great  number  of 
antiquities  in  the  line  of  numismatics,  Egyptology,  &c. 
Relics  from  different  parts  of  the  world  are  stored  up  by 
Mr.  Sutro  on  the  far  western  coast. 


INTRODUCTOEY  EEMARKS. 


Amongst  the  many  valual)le  MSS.  possessed  by  the  Sutro 
Library  of  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  United  States  of  America, 
there  are  many  scrolls  upon  which  the  Pentateuch  is  in- 
scribed, which  are  of  undoubted  antiquity.  One  of  these 
scrolls  is  supposed  to  be  the  one  mentioned  by  Mairaonides 

in  his  codex  CNn''  ]?2'D  12  '5  n'\')n  ")3D  mD^^H  Hmn  HX'O) 
as  having  been  written  by  himself. 

In  the  following  lines  1  venture  to  express  my  opinion  re- 
garding the  authenticity  of  this  scroll,  emphasizing  however 
that  I  am  submitting  nothing  that  exceeds  the  barrier  of  a 
tlieory,  and  that  I  have  no  convictions  in  the  matter  that  can- 
not be  modified  by  the  riper  knowledge  of  European  Archae- 
ologists. 


In  the  quoted  passage  from  the  Mishne  Torah,  Maimouides 
speaks  as  follows : 

p'D'CD  ^1  '?3  nmi  irrxn  ni't:n  wn  ni^iin  m;^Di'^^ 
•D^c'Dm  nnN*  qii  ^i  '?:)d::'  pD^cn  p::i  mr^VN  nc-'sr 
^liixi  -^1  nncy^  nc*t:n  dmn!:  ifion  '^dS::'  p^in  pjDi 
:  Dn^pD  nu'^VN*  nc'C')  wcc)  nw::  rScn  fi'^N  itDon  ^d 
n'?nn3r   jr'?:!'?   pDcn^   nnnM  mr^VN    ccm    i^v 

' '  The  scroll  of  the  Law  which  I  myself  have  written  con- 
tains 226  columns  of  51  lines  each;  the  width  of  each  column 
is  four  fingers,  (taking  the  Ezba  as  the  width  of  the  knuckle 
of  the  middle  finger).  The  Avidth  of  the  columns  on  which 
the  Song  of  the  Sea  and  the  Song  of  Warnings  are  written, 
is  six  fingers.     The  length  of  the  whole  scroll  is  1366  fingers. 


—  6  — 

The  remaining  six  lingers* — after  deducting  the  quantum  of 
226x6-|-2x2 — are  for  the  marginal  space  at  the  beginning  and 
the  end  of  the  scroll.  The  hides  on  which  the  scroll  is  writ- 
ten are  buckskins. 

The  Sutro  Scroll  in  question  corresponds  in  every  detail 
with  these  ritual  suggestions. 

II. 

PECULIAKITIES. 

The  correspondence  of  the  arrangements  of  the  columns 
alone  Avould  not  be  sufficient  ground  wliereupon  to  base  a 
theory  of  the  genuineness  of  the  scroll,  if  there  were  not  also 
some  peculiarities  in  the  mode  of  writing  aud  shape  of  the 
letters  and  certain  derogations  from  the  usual  ritualistic  laws 
controlling  the  writing  of  a  scroll  for  the  use  of  the  Syna- 
gogue. Maimonides  wrote  a  scroll  for  the  purpose  of  serving 
as  a  sample  to  other  scribes  and  to  illustrate  the  twenty  rules 

laid  down  by  him.     See  ^-\''Cy  '£}  r\"D  n):i''?n' 

All  the  usual  embellishments  introduced  by  the  scribes 

*^nD1Dn  fD  mVD^  are  left  out  in  the  scroll  before  us,  for 
instance:  the  crowns  (pJiri)  are  altogether  omitted;  the  mar- 
gins between  the  columns  are  not  always  exactly  two  fingers 
wide;  neither  majusculae  nor  minusculae  are  to  be  found. 

The  Cpii  of  i^')p>^  {Leviticus  I:  I  );  the  "tV  of  'C'H 
{Deutoronomy  XXXII :  18)  and  others,  are  not  smaller  than 
the  other  letters,  nor  are  the  VI  of  pflJl  {Leviticus  XI:  42) 
and  the  IV  of  SlJ»  {Numbers  XIV:  18)  bigger.  The  above 
mentioned  twenty  rules  are  strictly  observed  and  no  other 
rule  is  recognized. 

In  a  great  many  places  there  are  to  be  found,  on  the  right 
hand  margins,  three  points  of  the  shape  of  a  tonic  segolta 
(.*.).  A  close  examination  convinced  me  that  they  indicate 
the  seven  subdivisions  of  the  weekly  sections  DHID'     These 

"See  n''J1^''"'0  mnjn  l.  c  where  there  is  a  just  objeutiou  to  these  diiueu- 
sions.  The  glossiirist  tinds  only  4  fingers  reuiMiuing,  (after  luy  caleulatiou  I 
find  10  fingers  for  there  can  only  be  accounted  for  225  colniuns). 


differ  vvidel}'  from  the  usual  subdivisions — I  found  the  same 
order  of  division  in  many  old  MS8.  of  the  Pentateuch  {pos- 
sessed by  the  Sutro  Library)  which  bear  the  mark  of  the  ritual 
of  the  Arabian  Jews  who  followed  the  codex  of  Maimonides, 
and  in  which  MSS.  the  jlVJinDI  mmn^  are  also  regulated 
after  Maimonides's  system.  From  the  glosses  to  one  of  those 
MSS.  which  appears  to  be  a  copy  of  the  Sutro  scroll  {see 
ch.  VI-)  is  to  be  learned  that  there  are  three  kinds  of  sub- 
divisions of  the  weekly  sections  regulated  respectively  by 
Ezra,  the  Gaonim  and  Maimonides,  and  at  some  future  time  I 
intend  to  publish  the  characteristic  differences  between 
them. 

It  is  obvious  to  me  that  those  points  have  been  put  there 
by  the  same  hand  and  are  written  with  the  same  ink  as  the 
rest  of  the  MS.  Those  points  may  be  considered  as  very 
strong  presumptive  evidence  establishing  the  integrity  of  the 
whole  as  being  written  b}^  Maimonides,  for  no  one  else  Avould 
have  allowed  himself  the  liberty  of  putting  points  in  a  scroll 
destined  for  ritual  use.  The  purpose  he  had  in  view  with 
this  notation  is  obvious.  Every  scholar  in  studying  the 
Codex  might,  at  first  sight,  wonder  at  the  forgetfulness  of  the 
teacher  to  indicate  the  subdivisions  of  the  weekly  sections 
DHID*  He  who  has  to  control  and  note  every  ritualistic 
rule  should  not  have  omitted  such  an  important  suggestion. 
"We  might  infer  from  this  fact  that  the  scroll  in  question 
belongs  in  point  of  fact  to  the  original  manuscript  of  the 
Tyy\r\  nju*^  and  is  an  intrinsic  part  thereof. 

III. 

SHAPE   OF   THE   LETTERS. 

The  letters  are  of  peculiar  form;  the  {<3  has  no  tongue 
entering  out  of  the  D  but  a  small  line  coming  down  from  the 
head;  the  HV  and  j'^f  are  similar  to  those  met  wdth  in  older 
MSS.  coming  from  the  Orient.  The  DO  /ND  and  t]1p  are 
strikingly  similar  to  those  met  with  in  the  famous  letter  rec- 
ognized to  be  the  genuine  manuscript  of  Maimonides,  a  fac- 


—  8  — 
simile  of  wbich  is  given  in  the  Ginze  Oxford  by  M.  H. 
Bresslau.  The  VI  is  sometimes  shapeless;  the  10^  is  formed 
of  a  ti'n  with  a  IV  on  the  top.  There  are  NtJ's  which  are 
mfitiD'?  and  jl^H's  which  are  ni!:"lpi'-  (Those  NtD's  and  n^H's 
are  also  noted  in  many  MSS.  of  the  Pentateuch  [possessed 
by  the  Sutro  Library]  which  are  copies  of  this  scroll  and 
seem  to  have  been  written  as  samples  for  scribes  and  to 
preserve  the  maimonidian  version.) 

The  hand  of  the  unskilled  and  unprofessional  scribe  is 
conspicuous  everywhere  in  this  scroll.  The  lines  are  not 
evenly  parallel,  nor  are  the  letters  regularly  vertical.  The 
work  shows  rapid  execution,  as  if  the  writer  cared  more  for 
illustration  of  points  than  for  calligraphic  beauty  and 
neatness. 

ly. 

DIMENSIONS   OF   THE   SCROLL. 

The  scroll  has  a  height  of  22  inches;  each  column  is  15  to 
16  inches  high  and  5  inches  in  width — the  spaces  included — 
the  length  of  the  whole  is  1090  inches  ;  the  height  is  exactly 
equal  to  the  circumference. 

Three  fingers  width  are  left  as  margin  at  the  end.  A  piece 
of  skin  is  attached  and  stitched  to  it  for  the  use  of  the  roller; 
this  is  in  accordance  vvith  Maimonides's  indication  about  the 
margins. 

The  color  of  the  hides  is  like  that  of  papyrus,  or  similar 
to  the  binding  of  a  book  in  fair  calf  after  fifty  years  wear 
and  exposure.     The  hides  are  stiff  and  brittle. 

V. 

SECTIONS  niDinD")  mninfi 

The  sections  respectively  bear  the  marks  of  the  system  of 
Maimonides.  One  of  the  sections  embarrassed  the  glossa- 
rists  nX'D  i^DD  and  n*3^!:*^t^  r\^n:in  namely  that  of  LevitL 
cus  VII.  22.     The  'T'OC*  'tD  n"D  mrD^n  nprnn  T  says: 

nz'iKn  n-nn  r\'^\^  .pnN*  ^k  n^-ii  iDin  ']'2'\'p  r\n  i^m 
nam  ^yspr^n  Sn^i:'*  'jd  "^n  nun  nDin  .hd?  niin  nN*n 


—  9  — 

Both  glossavists  agree  that  there  must  be  an  omission  of 
D'^n  ^Dl  "IDT^I  and  an  error,  that  instead  of  Ct^  (ITl  there 
ought  to  be  ^3C'  [ni.  In  an  old  nptnH  "1*  printed  in  Con- 
stantinople on  parchment  in  the  year  1509 — there  occur  in 
deed  the  words  )^'2C  jm.  But  as  in  the  scroll  under  discus- 
sion and  in  many  MSS.  which  bear  the  marks  of  the  system 
of  Maimonides  as  far  as  the  m^DinDI  mninfi  are  concerned. 

2^n  '^Dl  "l^TI  is  only  noted  as  a  IimntD,  I  looked  for  an 
explanation  of  this  curious  discrepancy  in  six  old  MSS.  of 
the  UpTnn  1^  written  respectively  in  the  years  1373,  1386, 
1390  (possessed  also  hy  the  Sutro  Library) ;  and  in  them  I  found 
neither  ^Sh  '?:)!  "^^in  nor  n'"ip::ni  '^yV^  but  merely 
"^NX'*  ^JD  ^N  "1311  "ID"?^*!  by  which  is  meant  the  22d 
verse,  and  also  the  words  ti*C'|rn.  It  is  evident  there- 
from that  there  is  an  error  in  all  the  printed  editions  of  the 

n'p\ur\  ^\    (See  'c*  nnit:.) 

The  Song  of  l^'TNIl  is  in  this  scroll  condensed  into  67  lines 
instead  of  written  in  70  as  it  is  ordered  in  the  npilin  l^* 
This  derogation  puzzled  me  very  much,  the  more  so,  because 
I  found  in  the  old  MSS.  of  the  Pentateuch  mentioned  above, 
also  only  67  lines.     (See  »C^   nnit2). 

I  found  a  solution  in  the  already  quoted  old  MSS.  of 
the    nprnn  T    where   the   following     words    n^l^C*  fOniDI 

niD^C*  D^u'u'l  rX'D  TiNm  are  to  be  found,  and  really  all 
the  initial  words  given  in  illustration  correspond  exactly 
with  those  of  the  scroll  and  of  the  MSS.  In  the  old  printed 
Constantinople  parchment  is  also  given  D^^''2C  yet  there  is 
a   restriction    by    the    glossarist    CD    '£3   H^^TtD^rtD   mnjn) 

o  N*Dn  x:nn  xp  amy  "idi  qi  "^^  ^nn  mj<n  ni*t:*i 
:  r\yc'c*  dtx'I  y3t:'D  ]''2r\^^  irr^n  ni^ti'r  y^^^  iJ^nD 

We  see  therefore  conclusively  from  these  two  facts  that  the 
printed  codices  vary  materially  from  the  MSS. 


—  10  — 
VI. 

SCRIPTIO    PLENA   ET  DEFECTIVA     ")Dm  ^^!2' 

I  examined  all  the  words  wliicli  are  under  massoretic  dis- 
cussion, with  regard  to  tlieir  spelling  full  or  defective,  by  the 
oriental  and  the  occidental  schools  on  the  one  hand,  and  by 
the  Hileliau  and  the  Jerusaleinite  versions  on  the  other  hand, 
and  I  found  that  this  scroll  gives  credit  to  the  Jerusaleinite 
version,  except  when  the  Hilelian  is  seconded  by  the  best 
authorities. 

I  noticed  furthermore  a  very  remarkable  thing.  One  of 
the  MSS.  (possessed  by  the  Sutro  Library)  of  the  Pentateuch 
with  both  nilD!3  (magna  et  parva)  written  in  zigzag  shape 
on  the  margins,  corresponds  exactly  with  this  scroll  with  re- 
gard to  plena  et  defeftiva,  m^^iriDI  mmni,  subdivisions 
of  the  weekly  sections  ;  mGlsS  N5  mDlpI*  D^ni  and 
finally  to  the  initials  and  ultimates  of  the  columns,  i.  e.  those 
words  which  are  either  the  initials  or  the  ultimates  of  the  col- 
umns in  the  scroll  are  also  respectively  the  same  in  the  MS. 
But  as  the  scroll  has  51  lines  to  the  column  and  the  MS.  has 
only  20  to  the  column,  the  writer  of  the  MS.  has  condensed 
the  contents  of  the  51  lines  of  the  scroll  into  50,  so  that  the 
11th  line  of  every  third  page  is  the  first  line  of  every  second 
column  of  the  scroll;  and  the  first  line  of  every  sixth  page  is 
the  first  line  of  every  third  column  of  the  scroll. 

It   might  be   deduced  from  this  remarkable  coincidence 
that  the  MS.  is  a  true  copy  of  the  scroll. 

The  MS.  appears  to  be  very  old,  and  has  been  restored 
several  times,  once  recently  in  the  orient,  as  the  scraps  of 
paper  with  which  it  has  been  mended  look  new,  and  some 
bear  an  Arabic  manufacturer's  stamp.  It  is  so  carefully 
mended  that  even  wherever  a  letter  appears  to  be  damaged 
there  is  to  be  found  the  substitution  of  the  Avhole  Avord, 
either  between  the  words  or  on  the  margin.  From  this  fact 
it  may  be  supposed  that  the  possessor  of  the  MS.  attached 
a  great  value  to  it  knowing-  its  great  importance.  The  MS. 
is  gramatically  and  raassoretically  the  most  carefully  execu- 


— 11  — 

ted  piece  of  work,  there  is  not  a  poiut  omitted  ;  the  m£3"1 
are  marked  by  a  line  on  the  top. 

It  contains  also,  as  a  preface,  a  treatise  on  the  orthography 
of  the  Hebrew  language;  and  on  the  D''*2^*l2l  all  the  marked 
differences  between  Ben  Asher's  and  Ben  Naphtaly's  ver- 
sions; all  the  words  which  are  Hp  N7T  yn^  and  X^l  Hp 
^^riDl  the  number  of  the  letters  of  the  Pentateuch  in  an 
alphabetical  form  after  R.  Saadia;  finally  all  the  words  which 
have  an  nn5  with  pIDS  ^|1D"I  HIIN*.* 

Unfortunately  there  is  neither  name  of  writer  nor  date  to 
be  found. 

In  that  same  MS.  in  Exodus  XXV,  are  quoted  two  pas- 
sages of  the  rrnn  njJi^^S  referring  to  the  lamp  of  the  tab- 
ernacle, 

("ID  'f2  ':ii)"l  'n^  '0  'N*£3  HTH^n  iTD  'H  miD;^  -)3D) 
This  quotation  of  the  second  passage  {')12  '0  J'fl)  diifers 
with  the  printed  n^^nT]  1*  in  regard  to  the  spelling  of  a 
word,  tharof  D'n")D  which  means,  after  ^"Cn  in  I'HD  mTOO 
the  name  of  a  place,  whereas  in  the  MS.  is  written  D'^m"lD 
as  it  is  in  JD  mm!:  and  in  the  "|n;^  (HliDn  p^)  and  in  two 
MSS.  of  the  nmn  njt^'D  which  signifies  cypress,  the  name 
of  a  tree- 

I  found  afterwards  four  more  MSS.  of  the  Pentateuch 
which  are  also  copies  of  the  Maimonides  scroll.  All  these 
MSS.  are  noting  every  peculiarity  of  the  scroll,  even  when  a 
letter  is  of  an  unusual  shape. 

"Many  reasons  induce  me  to  suppose  that  this  treatise  had  for  author  Abou- 
l-Walid,Mervan  Ibn  Jauah  and  has  been  probably  translated  by  Ibn  Esra. 
There  is  twice  quoted  the  name  of  a  book  nmpn  (probably  nnplH  by  Chiug.) 
It  is  an  opuscule  of  52  pages  in  4o.  The  Sutro  library  is  in  possession  of 
three  of  this  treatises,  each  attached  to  a  MS.  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  same 
Massorah  is  attached  to  these  MSS.  and  seem  to  have  had  for  author  the  same 
as  that  of  the  treatise. 

To  one  of  those  MSS.  is  attached  one  more  opuscule  in  Arabic  treating 
D^)0yt31  IIPJ  (pi'obably  by  Jehuda  Chiug),  we  have  also  three  copies  of  the 
latter.     It  is  an  opuscule  of  17  pages  in  4o. 


• 


—  12  — 
VII. 

CONDITION   OF   THE   SCEOLL. 

The  first  nine  columns  are  missing  altogether,  until  Gen- 
esis X :  18. 

Four  columns  containing  Genesis,  from  XXXV:  27  to 
XXXIX :  10,  are  completed  by  a  later  writer,  who  essays  a 
faithful  imitation  of  the  original ;  these  are  written  on  a  hide 

of  red  tanned  leather  (D^DIJ^D).  Seven  columns  containing 
Genesis,  from  XLI:  57  to  XLVII:  16,  are  completed  by  a 
comparatively  recent  hand,  the  writing  being  very  nice, 
markedly  different  from  the  original,  on  two  fresh  hides  of 
red  tanned  leather.  (I  discovered  this  section  in  a  segrega- 
ted condition,  and  no  casual  looker  at  it  would  have  assumed 
that  it  represents  a  substitution  for  the  missing  section  of 
the  original  scroll). 

Fifteen  columns  containing  Exodus,  from  VIII  :  16  to 
XXI:  26,  are  completed  in  a  very  old  hand  entirely  similar 
to  the  original,  and  even  the  section  points  mentioned  above 
are  not  omitted.  The  color  of  the  hides  on  which  those  15 
columns  are  written  are  somewhat  different  from  the  original 
— a  little  brighter.  From  the  seams  it  can  be  judged  that 
the  original  15  columns  must  have  been  in  a  very  bad  con- 
dition, so  that  they  needed  restoration  in  order  to  preserve 
such  a  document. 

Two  columns  containing  Exodus,  from  XXXIV:  23  to 
XXXVI:  3,  are  also  completed  by  another  writer  on  red 
tanned  leather,  and  spaced  in  between  the  first  and  fourth 
columns  of  one  hide;  ^  the  writing  differs  from  the  original. 

After  a  careful  examination  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  four  restorations  have  taken  place  at  four  different 
times  very  distant  from  each  other,  and  probably  by  people 
who  knew  the  real  value  of  the  document. 


*Sucli  a  kind  of  restoratiou  makes  the  scroll  to  be  excluded  from  the  service 
of  the  Synagogue,  it  is  to  be  infered  from  this  fact  that  the  restorations  was 
more  intended  for  the  preservation  of  the  scroll  than  for  using  it  in  the 
Synagogue. 


—  13  — 
VTTl. 

HISTORY   OF  THE   SCROLL. 

The  scroll  belongs  to  a  collection  of  antiquities  once  owned 
by  Shapiro,  who  some  years  ago  obtained  considerable  noto- 
riety for  having  tried  to  sell  a  supposed  rare  document  of  the 
ten  commandments  to  the  museums  of  Europe  for  a  very 
high  price,  and  who  afterwards  committed  suicide  after  fail- 
ing in  his  attempt,  when  the  document  had  been  denounced 
as  a  fraud  by  the  best  experts.  Mr.  Adolph  Sutro,  while  in 
Jerusalem  in  the  year  1884,  casually  learned  from  the  Ger- 
man consul  at  that  place,  that  Shapiro  had  hypothecated  his 
antiquities  with  two  bankers  and  that  the  latter  were  eager 
to  dispose  of  them,  as  Shapiro  was  then  dead.  Mr.  Sutro 
accordingly  became  the  purchaser  of  about  150  MSS,  most 
of  which  are  valuable  relics  from  the  Orient.  The  collection 
consists  mainly  of  31  Pentateuchs  with  Arabic  and  Chaldaic 
translations,  some  with  ^b'"Ts  and  other  commentaries  and 
nniDtD;  24  volumes  of  niin  IUJ^'D  some  with  Arabic  com- 
mentaries; 9  DHTID  with  poems  by  Jehuda  Halevy,  Solomon 
ben  Gabirol,  Ibn  Ezra  and  others;  25  different  copies  of 
the  ^njil  tini*D  a  work  very  little  known  in  the  Jewish 
literary  world,  never  printed,  but  now  being  edited,  I  be- 
lieve by  Mr.  Schechter,  and  many  others.  (A  catalogue  of 
these  various  MSS.  will  shortly  be  published). 

I  question  whether  Shapiro  knew  the  real  value  of  the 
scroll  he  possessed,  if  so,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  spoken 
of  the  matter  to  some  of  the  archaeologists  of  Europe. 

IX. 

CONCLUDING   REMARKS. 

All  the  statements  T  have  entered  here  are  the  results  of  a 
close  examination.  Many  eminent  Hebrew  scholars  of  San 
Francisco  corroborated  them  in  a  meeting  called  for  that 
purpose  on  February  the  26tli  of  the  present  year.  They 
remain  only  to  be  verified  by  some  of  the  renowned  arch- 


—  14- 

aeologists  of  Europe  and  America.  For  that  purpose  this 
pamiDhlet,  with  a  fac- simile  of  three  columns,  of  about  nine 
tenths  of  the  full  size,  is  forwarded  to  the  leading  librarians 
and  archaeologists,  and  is  at  the  service  of  every  person 
who  is  acquainted  with  such  matters. 

All  are  kindly  requested  to  give  in  their  opinion  as  to  the 
value  of  the  scroll,  as  no  scholar  in  San  Francisco,  including 
the  writer  of  this  pamphlet,  has  deemed  it  right  to  express  a 
final  and  conclusive  opinion,  without  availing  themselves  of 
the  wider  knowledge  and  broader  experience  of  eminent 
experts. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


'^94' 


^•^S 


Form  L-9-15to-2,'36 


tTNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 


T  rrj-o  A  Tt-xr 


a.i^wv     X\.\^UI>/XXi. 


R75S  A  scroll  of  the 


law  supposed  to 
have  been  written  by- 
Ma  imonides"^ 


U';,SOyTHERf\J  RtGIOIMAL  LIBR/> 


AA    000  642  86^ 


<JJ^!^^^tK!! 


-JAW-6 


